Pacific reacts to Australia's new prime minister
Julia Gillard, Australia's first female Prime Minister, will also chair the Pacific Islands Forum in the lead up to the August meeting of leaders in Port Vila, but does she offer the region fresh hope? Derek Brien, PiPP Executive Director, and Fei Tevi, Secretary General of the Pacific Conference of Churches, join Barbara Heggen and Isabelle Genoux on Radio Australia's In the Loop programme to discuss what this may mean for the Pacific island countries. Listen to the discussion here.
Going mobile - research report
The Pacific Institute of Public Policy has launched its 2009 research findings on the social and economic impact of telecommunication liberalisation in Vanuatu. According to the PiPP leadresearcher Bimbika Sijapati Basnett, 'there is a clear link between people having better access to mobile services and economic productivity’.
This is a multi-year research project carried out in partnership the Vanuatu Government and AusAID. The research explores how people exploit access to telecommunications, and how the use of mobile phones impacts livelihoods. The study was first undertaken in 2008 at a time when the telecommunication sector had just opened up for competition and a second mobile service provider had commenced operation.
